I don't think there's any firm rule about it. VDOT doesn't typically distinguish between them when referring to them in most places ("Route X") unless it's talking about upgrading a route from secondary to primary. A lot of people use "VA X" for primary routes and "SR X" for secondary routes since Mapmikey and Froggie use those abbreviations on the Virginia Highways Project.

No. Virginia never refers to its secondary system as "county" routes. I have seen them coded that way in the Census Bureau TIGER files (which probably made its way into some GPS units), but that is not really correct.

Note that West Virginia does refer to (what Virginia would call) secondary routes as "county" routes.

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Is it VA 624, SR 624, or SSR 624? I've seen all three of them in various places.

VDOT in various places refers to all roads as a "route" whether it is a U.S. highway, a Virginia primary highway, or a secondary road. In other places, there is a distinction between "VA Route 16" and "Route 738" although it isn't consistent.

VDOT does designate primary and secondary based on the route number:

"Routes within the Primary System are numbered from 1 through 599statewide and roads within the Secondary System are numbered 600 andabove countywide. There is no relationship between route numbers and thedirection of the routes.

The AP Style Manual addresses how to identify highways generically, without any specific reference to Virginia. There are some media outlets that will refer to "Va. secondary 735" in a story to give the location of a traffic accident or other incident.

Typically when I am writing directions, I'll use VA 114 for a primary highway and Va. 685 for a secondary route.

No. Virginia never refers to its secondary system as "county" routes. I have seen them coded that way in the Census Bureau TIGER files (which probably made its way into some GPS units), but that is not really correct.

That is a quirk in reporting that Virginia has to work around. What the Feds refer to as "County highway" in its inventory (CAD?) programs doesn't uniformly cover Virginia, which uses the designation to refer to secondary routes.

1 Interstate highway2 U.S. numbered highway3 State highway4 County highway Virginia Note: This code shall be used for secondary routesin any county, including the counties of Arlington and Henrico.5 City Street6 Federal lands roads7 State lands roads8 Other (include toll roads not otherwise indicated or identified above)

For maximum clarity, I generally use "VA-XXX" for primary routes and "SR-XXX" (occasionally VA SR-XXX for when dealing with state lines) for secondaries. However, all routes numbered 600 and above (with the above mentioned exceptions of 664, 785, and 895), are secondary routes, so the designation doesn't really matter as much unless talking with people outside the loop.

We refer to them as SR routes because they are officially "secondary " routes.

In VDOT documents they often have described all routes as "route" X.

It is also generally accepted that anything with a route number greater than or equal to 600 is always a secondary, with the exception of the three above (and I believe I-664 is entirely within municipal boundaries, where there normally are no secondary route numbers to be found).

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We refer to them as SR routes because they are officially "secondary " routes.

In VDOT documents they often have described all routes as "route" X.

It is also generally accepted that anything with a route number greater than or equal to 600 is always a secondary, with the exception of the three above (and I believe I-664 is entirely within municipal boundaries, where there normally are no secondary route numbers to be found).

There are some secondaries signed on BGS along I-664 in the Southside, despite the fact they haven't formally existed for decades and aren't signed anywhere else.

There are some secondaries signed on BGS along I-664 in the Southside, despite the fact they haven't formally existed for decades and aren't signed anywhere else.

Suffolk, right?

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Prince William County has no standard way of denoting these designations when route numbers are included on its street signs.

Even U.S. routes are sometimes listed as "SR."

Chesterfield, Powhatan, and Albemarle Counties do the same thing on their street signs - those signs either give the current block number of the street, or its route number in the form of "SR X" (even for primary and U.S. routes).

For 2 counties that will actually be correct. Henrico and one other county not sure which one are the 2 that maintain them instead of VDOT. This actually was what was intended until the Byrd act during the great depression that allowed counties to hand the routes over to the state. I have often referred to them as county routes myself even if the secondary routes are maintained by the state they are still done on a county by county basis same thing with Missouri's lettered routes. It's not like the primary routes were the route number only exist once in the whole state.

For 2 counties that will actually be correct. Henrico and one other county not sure which one are the 2 that maintain them instead of VDOT.

Arlington County across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C., which considers itself a county but has many attributes that resemble a city, maintains its own "secondary" routes, none of which are rural, and nearly all of them resemble urban or suburban streets.

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For 2 counties that will actually be correct. Henrico and one other county not sure which one are the 2 that maintain them instead of VDOT.

Arlington County across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C., which considers itself a county but has many attributes that resemble a city, maintains its own "secondary" routes, none of which are rural, and nearly all of them resemble urban or suburban streets.

Considers?

Arlington County is a county because Virginia law says it is. It is a county with urban and suburban features. I don't know where you come up with this "consideration" stuff.

Arlington County *is* a county, but for all intents and purposes it acts like (and probably should be) a city. The county's street grid resembles that of a city and it's the smallest county in the state.

Arlington County *is* a county, but for all intents and purposes it acts like (and probably should be) a city. The county's street grid resembles that of a city and it's the smallest county in the state.

So in other words it is a county with urban features. In other words, a county.

There are plenty of Independent Cities in Virginia that are tiny or not urban (like Chesapeake), but that doesn't make them counties for "all intents and purposes".

The distinction is important too. Outside of maintainging its own roads, Arlington has more in common with Tazewell County than Alexandria when it comes to self-rule (e.g. County Board vs mayor, taxation and other powers go through Richmond, etc).

The legal distinction between a county and a city is a Very Big Deal in Virginia. Aside from the issues noted above, a city does not enjoy the sovereign immunity a county does. The topic is important enough that the bar review classes devote an entire day to it.

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"You know, you never have a guaranteed spot until you have a spot guaranteed."—Olaf Kolzig, as quoted in the Washington Times on March 28, 2003,commenting on the Capitals clinching a playoff spot.

"That sounded stupid, didn't it?"—Kolzig, to the same reporter a few seconds later.

The legal distinction between a county and a city is a Very Big Deal in Virginia. Aside from the issues noted above, a city does not enjoy the sovereign immunity a county does. The topic is important enough that the bar review classes devote an entire day to it.

That would probably explain why Arlington County hasn't made any effort to become a city.